


four-card monte

by bluecloak



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Heist, Secret Samol 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecloak/pseuds/bluecloak
Summary: THE PLAYERS: an up-and-coming, no-good (well, some-good) troupe of space criminals.THE CON: a smash-and-grab on a luxury cruise ship high above Counterweight.THE MARK: one (1) errant member of the Chime.Or: Mako gets tangled up in a bad deal. The rest of the Chime throw together something resembling a plan to rescue him, but have to shuffle up to make up for their sudden lack of hacker. Yes, the sequins are absolutely necessary.A Secret Samol gift for paradox_jess!
Relationships: Cassander Timaeus Berenice/Mako Trig
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	four-card monte

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Paradox_jess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradox_jess/gifts).



> happy (belated,) Secret Samol, Paradox_jess! you asked for some Mako shenanigans and found family content, and I......ran with it for 8k+ words, oops. there's a Dash of cassmako too. anyway, I hope you enjoy! :^)
> 
> very very big thank you to Laurence, Shannon, Kim, and Paz for proofreading and edits!

♦♣ NOW ♥♠

“Now, Mr.—what was it, again?”

“New-Jersey. Tenacity New-Jersey.”

“Mr. New Jersey—”

 _“Dr._ New-Jersey, actually,” he cuts in, with a winning smile. Leans hard on his definitely, absolutely real south-of-somewhere drawl. “And you fellas got the emphasis all wrong. There’s a hyphen in there, y’know? _New-Jersey_ , not New Jersey.”

 _“Dr. New-Jersey.”_ The person in front of him lets out a gust of a sigh, capital D Disappointed from inhale to exhale. “Things were going so well. This could’ve been so simple. But I don’t think you’ve been entirely straight with me, have you?”

As it turns out, that winning smile only gets him as far as second place. Something that feels awfully like the muzzle of a laser gun presses politely against the back of his head.

Mako Trig—charming, criminal, PhD-less—in a flash of wisdom, swallows down his all-natural instinct to add a couple of extra numerals and an _Esq._ to the New-Jersey. He tries to put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture, with minimal success. Being tied to a chair will do that to you.

“Now, fellas,” he says, smooth as space butter, “Let’s talk this out like _gentlemen._ ”

♦♣ THEN ♥♠

“He _didn’t_.”

Aria and Cass blurted it out at the same time, one half incredulous and the other its cynical opposite.

“Yes,” said AuDy, simply, “he did.”

They were all in the living area of the _Kingdom Come_ , clustered around a table still heaped with the detritus of the Chime’s last job: a few discarded snack wrappers, someone’s lightly singed jacket, a shoebox full of identical flash drives they still had to sort through, a handful of receipts to show to Orth for bookkeeping. AuDy pushed some of it aside to make room for a tablet, from which they pulled up several holographs.

Aria and Cass looked on in despair.

“I got an alert earlier about one of Mako’s cover IDs being used,” said AuDy. “You can see where and when.” A pause, dry as dust. “We will need to burn it after tonight.”

“He’ll be _so_ sad.” Aria sighed. “What’s he thinking, going in alone like that?” She dropped bonelessly into a nearby chair, where she spent a whole two seconds before shoving herself back to her feet. “Cass, we—”

“—need to go get him out of there.” Cass rubbed at a spot at their temple, wincing at the beginnings of a headache. “Not super sure how we’re going to break into a heavily-armed cruise ship with a state-of-the-art fucking nightmare of a security system, that I thought we all _agreed_ to pass on, _without our hacker—”_ They took in a breath. Counted. It didn’t help. “But it’ll be—fine.”

“Mako’s already in there,” Aria pointed out. She looked at AuDy. “Chances of sending him a heads-up without the security AI catching on?”

“Low,” said AuDy. They thought, and then amended their original assessment. “Extremely low.”

“Thought so.” Aria tilted her head at Cass. “Any ideas?”

Cass paced around them both, like some kind of fussy orbiting moon. “We’ll have to get in somehow and find him if he can’t come to us. But any covers we have won’t hold up for long under that security system. _Mako_ probably doesn’t have long now, even with what he can do.” It was starting to sound familiar, because this had all gone on the latter part of Cass’s meticulous Pros/Cons List from their mission briefing* last week. There wasn’t enough leeway in the old job by any means, but maybe it would be just enough for one missing guy retrieval. “We just have to act fast. No time for finesse.”

Aria hummed thoughtfully. “Smash-and-grab?”

“Pretty much. AuDy, do you still have the forged IDs we were going to use before?”

AuDy wasn’t built for sighing, but they radiated such a potent aura of it that Cass already felt apologetic. “Yes. We’ll have to burn them after tonight too.”

“Alright,” said Cass. And then, “Okay.” And then, “Orth is gonna be so mad.”

* Breakfast, where Cass had pulled up a holographic powerpoint while _some_ people were half asleep over the Strawberry Aria-O’s. ▲

♦♣♥♠

The _Lasting Blue_ hung in Counterweight’s orbit like a lost earring, shimmering and incongruous against the dusty, weary rust of the planet’s atmosphere. The ship was all candlelit-gold and layers of glass, every vast window designed to offer the best view possible to its arriving guests. Even from the reception area, you’d be able to see the distant glowing green of Weight among stars. If you looked down, you’d see Counterweight too, of course—its scarred geography and scattered city domes, barely visible in the haze. It cost a fortune to keep the _Lasting Blue_ afloat just for one night, and one night was ultimately all it was for. It was a luxury ship, and tonight it was holding an auction.

“Tacky,” Aria muttered, nudging her sunglasses up. She looked away from the windows. “Hey, you okay?”

“Fine,” said Cass. Then, in an agonized whisper: “I don’t know how you do this.” They shifted uncomfortably, the sequins on their silver jumpsuit glittering hard enough to be audible. She and Cass weren’t that similar in build, but the cut was flattering enough that it didn’t really matter this time, thankfully.

“What, formalwear? I know I’ve seen you wear this stuff before.” Mostly from tabloid photos, but that was old news. “The earrings look cute, by the way.”

 _“Acting.”_ Cass reached a hand up to touch the earrings when she mentioned them, making a face. They were big and disco-sparkly and always a pain to wear for too long, but they were the first ones Aria grabbed back on the ship during their frantic scramble to get ready.

Aria kept her eyes on the guards at the entrance as she answered, voice low. “I used to be in movies too, you know.”

“Yeah?” A pause. “I guess I remember that.”

“You _guess?”_ Aria pressed a gloved hand to her chest, feigning hurt. “Ouch.”

That got a laugh out of Cass, small as it was. Some of the tension in their shoulders seeped away.

“Well, like, five,” admitted Aria. Officially, music was supposed to be more of her Thing, but performance didn’t stop at cameras and concerts. Not until recently anyway. Kind of. Geez, her shit was weird.

“Anyway,” she said, giving them a nudge. “Don’t tell me you never had to put up a front and lie. Just do that and, um, be kind of bitchier? Philonikos seems kind of bitchy. You’ll be fine.”

Another laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”

Aria schooled her expression into something more neutral, straightening the lapels of her utterly pristine suit jacket. “C’mon. We’re up next.”

“Showtime,” they said, wry.

The plan, if you could call it that, was to slip into the party disguised as real guests, scour the ship for Mako, and leave as quickly as possible. Though the “how” of that last part was at present being workshopped. Meanwhile, Cass was currently pretending to be some Apostolosian opera singer, famous for masked performances and black market art deals, and who was in actuality convalescing in a vacation home with a terrible cold. AuDy was getting in as a cargo bot via an emergency shipment of courgettes fated to be canapes, and Aria and Cass were still waiting for them to connect on the comms. Aria would be getting in as Cass’s plus one bodyguard—hopefully a discreet enough presence that she would be able to poke around without being noticed too much.

The original job had been a retrieval—the potential client’s stolen research, which rumor said would be sold hidden as one of the auction pieces. They had initially passed on the job because of the extra risk. But then Mako had gone in without telling anyone. By himself. So: the plan as it was right now. Hopefully they would get out with Mako in tow before the AI found them and lasered them into toasty little smudges on the auction floor.

“Names?”

“Alkestis Philonikos,” said Cass. They gestured lightly at Aria. “My security detail, Miss Contralto.”

Their voice was airy and possessed of the kind of hauteur that Cass normally didn’t have except when it came to their thoughts on the _Hieron_ anime. It was a good enough impression of the real Alkestis, and that was because Cass had spent the ride over trying to cram the linguistic nuances of a two hour-long Best Of fan compilation in much less time than two hours into their brain via their phone.

Aria was careful not to let her relief show when they were both ushered into the main floor, still all nerves and on the brink of another anxiety-fueled joke. She swallowed and cast a look around, searching.

The main floor was filled with people dressed to the nines, the murmur of gossip and silk, and clinking champagne flutes suffusing the air like steeping tea. Lights hung from the high ceiling, which was glass and vaulted with almost insubstantial ribbing—it opened up a clear view into space, so that the lights seemed to drop down from nothing. Only slim, silvery columns helped to break the illusion. Well, that and the big-ass auction stage that took up the whole end of the room. It was currently empty, but the seating was beginning to fill up. Here and there were items on display, whether standing alone or hung on walls; some were for auction, others a loan from someone’s private collection. People gathered around them like flies, amusing their bouches with tiny food.

“There’s so many people,” Cass muttered, looking dourly at the crowd. “How are we even going to find him?”

A peal of loud, boisterous laughter rang out from the crowd. It was followed by the sudden pop of a champagne bottle and someone saying, with great exuberance,

_“You’ve got yourself a deal, mister!”_

Aria and Cass’s heads swiveled towards the voice in dreadful unison.

“Oh my god,” said Aria.

“Found him,” said Cass, unnecessarily.

They moved forward, but Aria pulled at their elbow before they could make their way to Mako. And it _was_ Mako. No one else could articulate so clearly the sound of a bad decision. Apart from herself.

“We can’t make a scene,” she said, wincing as _someone_ started talking about being _a very_ _business-forward kind of man_. “I’ll get him. You just sit tight and like, have a canape or something.”

Aria didn’t wait for an answer as she made her way over to Mako through the crowd. She tugged absently at her tie, braced her shoulders, and tried to think big, tough bodyguard thoughts. She could be tough, right? There were still bruises from the last job smarting under her clothes. Hadn’t she _been_ tough, lately—

“Dr. New-Jersey,” she said, steeling her voice so that it cut clear through the conversation. That, at least, was old hat for her. The chatter died down. “My client would like to have a word with you.”

Mako turned at the sound of his super real not fake name, champagne bottle in hand. It looked like he was in the middle of topping it off for someone. He was dressed in clothes that clearly weren’t his—lilac tuxedo, holographic satin shirt, a multicolor mood bowtie. Way too basic for Mako. The fake mustache was definitely his, though.

“‘Scuse me,” he said, without missing a beat. He grinned at everyone and winked, the ham. “Business! You know how it is. Let’s touch base later!”

He left the bottle behind, but picked up some kind of jellified cube from a passing waiter’s tray.

“Snazzy suit,” he said, biting into it. “I don’t see you wear a lot of black and white.”

“Not my vibe,” said Aria. “Thanks though. Also, hey, what the fuck are you doing? _Don’t_ say ‘having a snack.’”

“Uh,” said Mako. “Uhhh. Um?”

“You said you were going to get _pizza_.”

“I was!” Mako winced, contrite. “Listen, I’ll explain in a sec. Where is everyone?”

A dozen questions had been kicking around in her head since they’d left the _Kingdom Come_ , but Aria tried to tamp down on them for now. She looked around cautiously, still mindful of the crowd. “Here and there. C’mon, I don’t want to stick around.”

“Okay. Okay.” But Mako had stopped, hands stuffed in his immaculate purple pockets. Probably ruining the lining.

Aria turned back. “What?”

“Thanks for coming to get me.”

“…Like we’d leave you in here.”

♦♣♥♠

It wasn’t like Cass didn’t have experience with lavish formal functions. It was just that it had been…a minute since they had been invited to one. Granted, their family had done most of the inviting back on Apostolos. They shouldn’t have felt so out of place at a big fancy party, even if this one was largely full of scheming rich idiots. Wasn’t that just the same thing? Anyway, at least Alkestis Philonikos didn’t have to wear ancient ceremonial robes. On the other hand, they _did_ wear an ornate mask that covered half their face because, like, branding or whatever, and it was hard not to feel awkward and overdressed in that. In any case, they didn’t have to worry about it being a good disguise—they’d noticed Aria fiddling with her own flimsy sunglasses a lot on the ride over.

Cass sipped at their club soda, trying not to feel like a sad teenager at prom sulking in the corner.

A sad teenager at prom who was a half-step away from having a stroke because they might be hunted down by the deadly, laser-focused prom AI at any moment. Also they were a wanted criminal. Trying to rescue some other wanted criminals. There was that.

They nearly wilted in relief when Aria came into view, Mako right beside her.

“ _There_ you are.”

“…Funny meeting you here?” said Mako, with a feeble grin.

“Ha ha,” said Cass grimly.

They folded their arms and tried to look reproving, but all the frantic tension that had been bubbling in their chest started to subside. Mako seemed no worse for wear, if more soberly dressed than usual.

“Nice outfit,” he said brightly. “The sequins really bring out your scales.”

Cass scoffed. “Your mustache is peeling off.”

Mako smoothed the stupid thing back down and gave them a real grin. It looked just like it did the first time he slapped the awful thing on, which was to say, not good. “Better?”

“Not even a little.” But Cass felt a smile fighting its way up from the depths of their cynical soul, and so stomped down on it decisively. They were _busy_.

Aria pulled a tiny comms device from an inner pocket in her jacket and handed it to Mako, who slipped it into his ear. “Any word from AuDy yet?”

“Where _is_ AuDy?” Mako asked.

“Around,” said Cass.

“Hopefully?” said Aria.

 _“Yes,”_ said AuDy over the comms. They all jumped. _“Hello, Mako. I haven’t had a chance to locate any exit routes yet.”_ A pause. _“I may need some assistance.”_

Cass didn’t like the sound of that. “Uh, are you…okay?”

 _“Yes.”_ Another pause. _“Sort of.”_

The static over the comms sounded more annoyed than anything, which was familiar enough. But still. The others had the same feeling, from their expressions.

“We should group up with AuDy,” said Aria, frowning. “We’ve got Mako, so it’s time to uncrash this party anyway.”

“What?” said Mako. He shook his head. “No way. I mean, yes way we should get AuDy, but I can still finish the job. I’ve totally got it. Gimme like, fifteen minutes, I swear.”

“Forget the job. Mako, it’s pushing it to be here at all,” Cass insisted. “I don’t even know how you got in without being— _Mako!_ ”

They tried to keep their voice down to a hiss as Mako rushed off, not wanting to attract any attention, but even if they’d shouted it wouldn’t have made a difference. They looked hopelessly at Aria, who shrugged just as hopelessly back.

“I—listen, I’ll get to AuDy.” She adjusted her shades, fortifying herself. “You go wrangle Mako.”

 _“I’m not gonna be_ wrangled, _Aria!”_

She made a face. “I forgot about the comms. Ugh. You better explain yourself _soon_ , dude.”

Aria flapped her hand at Cass as they parted, and Cass set about the task of wrangling their wayward hacker.

♦♣♥♠

In the infinite darkness of the cargo container, AuDy once again weighed the positives and negatives of blasting their way out versus waiting for someone to receive their ping and come help them. It was true that discretion was important and “blasting” was not a verb that fell under such a category. On the other hand, it was cramped and unpleasant, and they were already irritated for not noticing before that the thing locked from the outside.

Of course it did, because that was the standard design for locks. This had not been a good choice of hiding place.

Blasting it was then.

As AuDy made the decision to draw, there was a metallic clunk against the outside of the container. This did not alarm them, as they were sure they could handle whatever it was quite squarely.

Another clunk. Someone was knocking.

“AuDy!” It came through on their comms and their audio processors. Oh. Aria.

They knocked back. “Yes. Hello.”

“Hold on, I’ll get you out of there!”

It was still a bit noisy, but less so than gunfire punching through a cargo container would have been, and so Aria made good on her promise. There was a cascade of courgettes gently hitting the ground as AuDy rose from the depths of the container like some lugubrious being from a dark, vegetal sea.

“Aria,” they said in greeting, stepping very gingerly out.

She hoisted a crowbar onto her shoulder and gave a gentle pat to AuDy’s chassis. “Hey there. You okay?”

“Fine.” They brushed themself off and looked around. “Just uncomfortable.” It seemed like they were in some sort of refrigerated storage area, which was pretty much as expected. “Did you have much trouble getting down here?”

“A little. I think I got lucky. The suit and invite ID are doing some work, but it’s not gonna last.” She let out a short, tense sigh, clearly antsy. “You said you got in as a cargo bot before. Did you happen to see any like, emergency exits or easy-to-steal transports on the way here? Any big switches that say ‘SECURITY ON/OFF’ on them?”

“No,” said AuDy. “Mostly vegetables. Some other cargo and transport equipment. This area is mostly bots, at least. I did manage to find a map of the ship.”

That made Aria perk up. “Oh? Great, maybe we can work out an exit from that! Did you download it?”

“No.” AuDy turned around, dug around in the cargo container, and fished out the map. “I pulled it off of a wall.”

“Oh. Huh.” Aria squinted at it. _“Hmm,_ it looks like the loading bay isn’t too far from here. And some emergency shuttles over _here_.” She pointed. “Ooh, and a security hub right _here._ What do you think?”

“It will be difficult to get to any of them. The loading bay had a lot of security as well.” Hence their brief sojourn among the courgettes.

There was a staticky little crackle along the comms line. Faint sounds of music and conversation drifted through.

 _“Go for the hub,”_ said Mako, slightly indistinct. _“Also, hi AuDy! Glad you’re okay, buddy—anyway, you’ll have to disable a bunch of alarm walls before any of that other stuff will even let you get close. Oops, gotta go—”_

Aria huffed. “Yeah, yeah. Too bad we don’t have a hacker with us.”

“Imagine,” said AuDy, voice flatter than a large plastic map of a luxury cruise ship. That got a little half-laugh out of Aria.

“Yup, too bad.” She reached up and gave them a cheerful pat on the shoulder. “Okay, which way first?”

♦♣♥♠

Cass found Mako again somewhere between the champagne fountain and croquembouches, trying to finesse a bottommost cream puff from the foot of the pastry tower. Of course.

“Oh,” said Mako when he saw them, without any embarrassment or shame, “There you are!”

The nerve. _“Doctor,”_ they said, because _someone_ had to have some sense of discretion here.

“You’re just in time,” Mako continued easily, like he and all his friends weren’t in terrible danger of being barbequed alive by the security AI in probably half an hour. “Show’s about to start.”

He succeeded in freeing the cream puff from the bottom of the croquembouche without spilling a crumb. Naturally.

“Show?” said Cass, as Mako whisked them along by the arm. “And when exactly were you going to explain yourself, huh?”

“The auction, duh. Hey, have you had one of these?”

“No, I haven’t had any party snacks because I’ve been running around chasing _you_ —”

Mako peered up at Cass, holding the cream puff aloft on a little plate. “If you try it, I’ll explain.”

Cass made a face. “You said you were going to explain before anyway.” But they still took the plate from him, if only to stop him getting sugar on their nose.

They bit into the pastry. The shell was tender and a little eggy, with a thin, glassy coat of caramel glaze. The filling was a sweet whipped cream that melted light on the tongue. It tasted like…

“Seaweed?” said Cass, blinking.

“Yup!” Mako smiled widely, pleased. His fake mustache looked extra pleased with him. “Like it? I know you go through the nori chips like nobody’s business.”

Cass chewed, distracted against their better judgement. They weren’t much of a dessert person, and seaweed didn’t lend itself too well to that flavor-wise, in their opinion.

“Not salty enough,” they concluded, though the pastry was just crumbs on the plate now.

“Aw, you say that about _everything_.”

“It’s because I’m right.”

At this point, Mako had led them close to the auction seating, but Cass pulled them both away to a nearby corner instead. Okay, so it was more of a big potted plant next to a wall, but it was as close to privacy as they were going to get in a glass hall full of people.

They raised their eyebrows at Mako. “And you’re not going to distract me with pastries. What’s going on?”

Mako mirrored Cass’s eyebrows right back, which they could never tell was on purpose or not. They still hadn’t decided if it was annoying or not either.

“I’m gonna do the job, obvs.”

“Without a plan? Without us?”

Mako faltered. “I didn’t—listen, I didn’t mean to not tell you guys, it just…it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, kinda? No, I know, that sounds really reckless—” He winced. “It’s more like, I saw a chance to get in and I took it. I didn’t have time to consult anyone about it. I—maybe I could’ve, but I didn’t.” His hold on Cass’s arm loosened a bit, and his shoulders slumped miserably under his lilac shoulder pads. “Are you mad?”

Cass’s shoulders tensed, some ancient seaborne instinct willing them to swim fast and far away from the situation, which always happened whenever they had to honestly acknowledge any feelings. They let out a breath, suddenly grateful for Philonikos’s mask over their face. “I—yes—but just because we didn’t know if something _happened_ to you, Mako.”

Some of the same tension drained away from Mako’s frame. “…Sorry.”

“Something still might happen to you if we can’t get out of here,” Cass grumbled, itchy all over with the effort of vulnerable emotion. “How did you get even get in to begin with?”

“Oh, that.” Mako made a careless gesture, hand skimming the big leaves of the potted plant. “Well, like I said to Aria, I _was_ gonna get pizza. I was even at the place. But there was this like, fancy-lookin’ guy there, and he was complaining to someone on the phone that he wasn’t gonna be late but just wanted some ‘real food’ because they never had anything good at these stupid galas. There aren’t that many galas happening within driving or shuttle distance, so I figured it was this one. Anyway, stole his wallet, hacked the invite to change the name but not the code because like, you need the code obviously, and uhhh bought this tuxedo a block away.”

What the fuck. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Mako reached into his sleeve and pulled out a little square of clear plastic, handing it to Cass. _Dr. Tenacity New-Jersey_ was printed very legitimately on it, along with a cluster of blue-inked code in the corner.

“The pizza place?” Cass said, because like, seriously.

_“Yeah.”_

Static buzzed over their comms. It was AuDy. _“That is not going to hold up for much longer._ _It’s shocking that it has so far.”_

“You can’t even see it!” said Mako indignantly.

_“I don’t need to. The security AI of this ship is either going to zero in on you or is already doing so as we speak, because however legitimate the invitation code is, it won’t match up with against its reference catalogue. I don’t want to find out how it deals with anomalies.”_

Another hiss of static. _“Which is why it would be a_ super _idea to leave asap,”_ Aria said. Cass had to agree. She added, _“We’re in the hub, by the way. We’ll try to handle the security walls and get a transport out of here.”_

“Yeah,” said Mako. “As soon as possible. After I retrieve the data.”

“Mako—”

“I have a plan! Seriously!” He looked imploringly at Cass, as the other two were not near enough to be physically implored at. “Okay, like. Fifty to sixty percent. Listen, just give me a time limit and if we’re not ready by then, we’ll drop it like a hot potato. Promise! C’mon, we’re already here, we might as well try—and I _know_ you felt sorry for the client, Aria.”

_“I’ll feel sorrier for you if you get vaporized by a cruise ship AI, Mako!”_

“Sixty percent’s not much,” said Cass hesitantly. “Mako…”

“I can do this,” Mako insisted. “I know it’s—it’s a mess, right, and I shouldn’t have just jumped in. I just—I don’t want it to be for nothing now. And I promise the minute you say we need to go, we’ll go. Just—trust me, okay?” He stopped so sharply that the sentence felt bitten off.

There was a pause all around.

“…We can get it up to seventy, I bet,” said Aria. “But when I say bail, we _bail.”_

“Eighty, at least,” said Cass. They gently handed the invite back to Mako. “Alright?”

 _“This is unwise,”_ said AuDy finally. _“However, that is the situation regardless at this point. What do you need us to do?”_

♦♣♥♠

Mako led Cass to some seats by the auction stage, a row behind the front. Cass noted approvingly that they were a bit off to the side, so if any impromptu escapes needed to happen, there wouldn’t be too many legs to trip over.

The original problem with the job was that the client’s stolen data, on account of being stolen, could and would be disguised to look like anything. Preferably something not stolen. Mako couldn’t just hack his way into where the auction items were being held because 1) it was heavily guarded anyway 2) he wouldn’t know what the data was being be stored on. The only concrete information the client had been able to give them was the name of the company that would be bidding on it. With that, they’d know what the data was stored on as soon as whoever represented the company placed their bid. The _other_ problem was how to actually retrieve the item afterward, but it was, as Mako said, being workshopped.

The representative the company had sent was currently several seats away in the row ahead of Cass and Mako. All they could make out from the back were some truly wild sideburns and an expensive suit.

Two auction pieces had come and gone, with hardly a stir from Sideburns. The process was tedious: the auctioneer would announce the lot number, follow that with a short flavorful description, and then, because rich people were fucking absurd, the giant LED screen behind them would show live camera footage of the item’s individual container as a robotic hand reached over and opened it up for the audience to see. _Then_ the bidding would start.

The seconds dragged on, eating up what precious time they had left. Cass was fairly ready to just grab Mako and run the second Aria gave them the go-ahead.

“What’d you think of that painting?” Mako asked conversationally, like he wasn’t in any terrible awful imminent danger. He was slouched in his fancy chair, leaning his cheek on his palm. His legs kept bumping up against Cass’s because he couldn’t stop fidgeting.

“I didn’t get it,” said Cass, sincerely.

 _“You don’t have to ‘get’ it,”_ said Aria over the comms. _“It’s about like, the vibes. The aesthetics of the piece.”_

 _“It’s a forgery,”_ said AuDy, flippant. _“Any sign yet?”_

The auctioneer cleared their throat, announcing the next lot. A little hush settled over the crowd once again.

“Next, we have a wonderful piece from one of our sponsors’ private collections: A pair of antique diamond earrings made by House of Coral Bells, famous for their costuming work in vintage films like…”

Sideburns raised his hand in a bid before the auctioneer even finished their first sentence. The image on the screen behind them was transitioning from the painting to another case.

“Sixty from the gentleman in front. Do we have any challengers?”

Cass sat up, and nudged Mako discreetly. All they got back was a _“shhh.”_

Mako was squinting very slightly at the screen, chin still in hand. His restless shifting had stopped for now, and his fake mustache was set at an angle of pure concentration.

The screen flickered once and twice before it fizzled into a field of white static. That drew a few murmurs from the crowd and an irritated glance backwards from the auctioneer, but nothing more. The image was back in a second: a small black case and a poised robot arm, already in the middle of opening the former.

Then the arm pulled back, revealing the inside of the case. Empty.

Gasps swept through the audience as the auctioneer spluttered, pulling away from their microphone to speak urgently into their headset instead. Meanwhile, Sideburns had stood up, clearly incensed.

Cass glanced back at Mako. He wiggled his eyebrows at them.

_“Everyone—everyone please settle down, we’ll have this all sorted very soon! If you would please comply with security and—these are standard measures, yes thank you…”_

All was chaos and uproar. The audience was full of wealthy and highly suspicious people, each and every one of them keyed up and ready to have a talk with the manager. The guards struggled to corral them all in place.

In all the commotion, Cass didn’t notice Mako was gone until they saw him up front talking to Sideburns. It was all of a few seconds, and he was already ducking past the crowd to rejoin Cass.

“What did you do?” Cass whispered, barely able to hear themself in all the noise.

Mako grinned. “Told Mr. Sideburns there that if he wanted the earrings, he’d meet me on the deck in twenty minutes.”

“And the screen?”

“Spoofed the live feed remotely. Just a little clone stamp filter, nothing fancy.” It hadn’t needed to be, after all. A few seconds of uncertainty was all that was needed to throw a wrench in the works. Mako looked very pleased with himself. “Anyway, everyone including the buyer is gonna be busy for a while. We know where the data is now, so we just need to steal it and get a ride out of here.”

Then all the alarms went off.

♦♣♥♠

Aria stepped deftly over the pile of unconscious security guards over to the main console, staring up at the camera screens. What a mess. AuDy had stuck a few in the storage bins, but there were a lot less bins than there were guards. Oh well. She rubbed at her bruised knuckles—ouch, ouch, none on the metal hand, at least—and opened the comms channel again.

“What’s going on? Hello? Cass, Mako, what happened—”

“It’s the AI,” said AuDy. They were sitting at the console, scanning through the feeds. They looked vaguely scuffed, but those scuffs were preexisting. No bruises from this fight, lucky them. “Mako, when you accessed the live camera feed, it set off the security system. It knows where you are now.” AuDy wasn’t one to shout, but there was a terse urgency in their tone now.

 _“I know! I know, I just didn’t think it’d be that fast—”_ The shouting and alarms in the background kept spiking Mako’s audio. The scene on the console display confirmed the scale of disaster happening.

Cass patched in, harried but steady. _“Can you buy us some time?”_ There was a distinctly laser-like _pewwww_ noise in the background, followed by some worrisome sizzling. _“Uh,”_ they added, sounding phenomenally less steady. _“Soon, please?”_

“AuDy?” said Aria, holding her hand out. They passed her the big map, which she spread out on the console, eyes skimming down the image of the ship. _Think._ “Okay—you two need to head down and try the loading bay or emergency shuttles. Whichever works. We’ll—we’ll try to distract the AI in the meantime.”

Aria turned to AuDy, the slightest touch of panic tinging her voice. “AuDy, can you do a hack?”

They considered it.

“Yes,” Audy said, and punched clear through the console.

There was a _crunch_ , hot sparks flying back from the metal and plastic. Buttons flickered on and off, dials spun in wild rotation, and a red flashing light suddenly filled the room in a way that made Aria wonder briefly if she should have taken some online coding classes at some point in her recent past and if that would have circumvented this specific event at all. Well. C’est la vie, or whatever.

Then there were two short, loud shots that rattled the whole console. Aria remembered that AuDy’s arm was also just like. A gun. Acrid dark smoke began floating out of the console, rung through with occasional sparks from ripped and melted wires.

A little green rectangle of something popped up on the smudged, battered screen of AuDy’s torso. It was a battery icon, charging up.

“I am siphoning some of the power out from the security system,” they said, casual as could be. “This should slow things down before a backup reserve kicks in. If there is one for this system at all.” They paused, shifting their arm just a smidge. “This will have annoyed the AI a lot too. It is good to know you still have that crowbar. Just in case.”

That sounded like a whole lot. Aria waved some of the smoke away, nose wrinkling. “Can you…handle that much energy? You’re one robot, not a ship’s entire security system.”

“Yes,” said AuDy, after a worrying pause. “…But it’s probably like eating a truckload of coffee beans to you, instead of just having the cup.”

Aria gave their chassis a sympathetic pat. “Did you get all of that, Cass?”

Nothing but static. “Cass?”

There was still only static when she tried to tune the channel again, and then a burst of noise and chaos. Cass was still talking, their voice frantic, cutting in and out of the feed.

_“—took Mako—!”_

♦♣ NOW ♥♠

In his time spent as a professional roguish ne’er-do-well, Mako has seen his fair share of shitty, badly-lit backrooms where all the ne’er-doings happen. Sometimes the job is big enough that he gets to see the luxury upgrade to the shady backroom, the big shady warehouse. But as luxe and rife with under-the-table dealings as the _Lasting Blue_ is, the shady backroom that Mako is currently being held hostage in barely warrants a mention. There’s another much more interesting shady backroom full of stolen art and stuff somewhere else on the ship, but he’s stuck in the one full of vegetable containers and crates of sparkling water.

“What is there to talk about, doctor?” says Mr. Sideburns, who did have a real name that the client had given to the Chime. Mako would remember it in a second, probably. “You have something of mine, and I would like it back.”

“Technically,” Mako says, because he’s a poke first run later kind of guy, “You don’t own squat, since you never paid for it. _But_ if you want to do business—”

“Apart from some rather bold claims, you haven’t given me a lick of proof that you actually have what I want. I wouldn’t go around making demands in your position.” He grimaces down at Mako. “My men are at the auction vault now. We’ll see if you’re actually what you say you are.”

Mako hopes that the others can at least hear everything through the comms. A rescue would be _so_ nice right now. He tries out his very best, most charming “who me?” smile, stalling for time. “You said you wanted simple. What’s simpler than a transaction between two _upstanding_ businessmen? Now, if you’d just hear me out—”

“Oh, I’d think twice about that if I were you.”

The new voice puts an end to the argument. Every head in the room turns towards it.

Cass emerges from the shadows of a tall stack of sparkling water crates, sequins gleaming even in the low light. The quiet tap of their heels on the linoleum floor is suddenly the loudest sound in the room. There’s a gun in their hands, pointed straight at Mako.

“—!” says Mako.

“Who the hell are you?” Mr. Sideburns demands. His men draw their own guns, but Cass continues to look unconcerned.

“Someone who has business with the good doctor here,” says Cass. They tilt their head to one side, hair spilling over their shoulder. “I want what’s mine, _New-Jersey.”_

Mako is _delighted_.

“Now, Mx. Philonikos,” he says, eyes wide and shoulders shrugging apologetically through the ropes, “I’d absolutely love to chat, but, as you can see, I’m a little—”

—even from a distance, he can see the miniscule wince of true, longsuffering pain that is Cassander Timaeus Berenice through and through—

“—tied up right now,” Mako finishes.

Mr. Sideburns looks as though he’s in great physical agony. “You know this man?” he says to Cass, suspiciously.

“Know him?” Cass laughs, haughty and snide, playing up the gritty tragic them fatale for all it was worth. It’s the best day of Mako’s life. “You could say that _.”_

“Alkestis—can’t we talk about this?” says Mako, his voice thin and wheedling. All the attention has turned to Cass, so he slowly gives his bound wrists an experimental wiggle. How much give was there?

“Enough talk.” They turn to Sideburns instead. “The earrings aren’t there. You can call your men and check if you want.” Another laugh, derisive. “You think _he_ knows anything about it? Who do you think had to steal them for him in the first place?”

They brush their hair back from their face, the pale glimmer of an earring stark in the dim light. They’re only wearing one.

Cass smirks, scathingly sharp, which—okay, that was kind of—

A guard goes up to Sideburns, tone urgent but too quiet to hear. Sideburns scowls. “You’re right,” he says to Cass. “They’re gone. So how much do you want?”

It’s all talk. His guards are already gathering, weapons poised.

“I don’t want your money,” says Cass, gazing coolly across. “I want him. Like I said, we have business.” They don’t put their gun down either. “Now, thank you. If you ever want to see the other half of this pair again.”

No one actually puts their guns away, which is too bad, but one of the guards does come over to untie Mako. He gets up and shakes his wrists out. Sideburns eyes him warily, so he makes a face right back before making his way to Cass.

 _“Mako. Cass.”_ Aria’s voice filters in through the comms, a low whisper of static. _“We’re ready. Get to the loading bay!”_

“Doctor.” They tip their head towards him by a fraction. “If you don’t mind. My hands are busy.”

So, Mako reaches up and removes the earring. His knuckles skim the line of Cass’s jaw when he does. They glance down at him, and away, all in a second.

Up close, the earring looks nothing like diamond. Because it’s plastic.

“Go on,” says Cass, even and calm. “A deal is a deal.”

Well, okay.

_“Catch!”_

The earring flies right at Sideburns. The guards move, but Cass is faster, firing a shot up into the light panel in the ceiling. It shatters. The room fills with darkness. Cass drags Mako aside as it also fills with furious shouting, and the two of them race for the exit.

It’s a weird, panicked scramble through the halls. The loading bay isn’t that far, but the whole ship is in disarray, even without the angry bodyguards somewhere behind them. The halls are full of red warning lights.

At some point, Cass has to yank Mako back from rounding a corner because there’s an honest-to-fuck actual laser grid blocking the way. It sizzles.

“Security lockdown,” is all they can say, trying to catch their breath. Their hand is still fisted in Mako’s jacket, and they let go very quickly. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better but also like, worse?” Mako peers up at Cass—their hair’s a mess, hanging loose around their shoulders. They’ve lost a couple of sequins here and there. “What about you?”

“I’m fine. We should—”

Voices float in from down the hall. They both look around wildly, caught between a laser grid and a hard place. Mako is the one who notices the door of a supply closet a few feet back, and makes the executive decision to shove both their asses into it immediately.

It is not a comfortable fit. He and Cass would be nose to nose if it weren’t for the handful of vertical inches between them.

Neither of even dares to breathe until the footsteps pass, and Mako nearly bites through his tongue when they double back—but they’d just been stopped by the laser grid, judging by the irate muttering. The longer he and Cass wait, the more aware he is of their arms pressed up by his, the way he has to brace himself on their shoulder. Their hair is caught under his hand. He hopes he isn’t pulling on it, but the thought of brushing it away is too—

“I think they’re gone,” Cass murmurs. They blink down at Mako. “What?”

He flushes, hot and sudden. “I—uh, hey, what were you gonna do if they asked you for the other earring?”

A shrug. “Oh, I don’t know. I lost it upstairs. I hope Aria wasn’t too attached.”

The comms channel buzzes to life. _“I wasn’t, but you still owe me a new pair. What are you two_ doing? _Let’s go!”_

♦♣♥♠

Cass and Mako make it to the loading bay, where Aria is waiting for them in a small cargo shuttle. She’s lost her jacket, and the sleeves of her shirt are rolled up. She ushers them into the shuttle and the hatch shuts behind them, hissing as it seals itself.

It’s cramped in the shuttle, all random cargo and corrugated metal. There are only two seats too: the pilot’s seat, which Aria promptly drops into, and the copilot’s, where AuDy is sitting. Drooping.

“I’ve stabilized AuDy as much as I can, I think,” says Aria, hands fluttering busily over the console. “Could someone keep an eye on them though? And could someone else like, hold my phone and read the directions until we’re planetside again?”

“Zzz,” says AuDy’s monitor.

“What happened?” Cass asks.

“I think they shorted out. They said they were siphoning a lot of power from the security AI to keep it busy, and…this is what happened.” Aria pauses as the shuttle wobbles off the ground and steers it carefully towards the exit. “Well, the first time was a lot but they were still conscious. The second time—”

“They did this _twice?”_ Mako looks down at AuDy, noting all the new scratches, dents, and scorch marks. “Oh, _buddy.”_

Aria nods. “The second time was when we broke into the auction vault. The AI, umm, didn’t like that? So AuDy drained some more power off it, but it was like, too much right? So we kinda poured it into this big laser I found, and we…hacked the vault?” She hums, thoughtfully. “Is it hacking if it’s physical force? Anyway, that knocked AuDy the fuck out, so I grabbed the box and put AuDy on a little wheely cart thing and got them in here.”

“Zzz,” says AuDy’s monitor again. The Zzz’s are all different colors. They start floating around the screen, bumping gently into the edges.

Cass squints down critically at AuDy. “There doesn’t seem to be too much external damage, at least. I don’t know how much I can do—AuDy usually goes to Cene for fixups. Should we text them? Anyway, I think I saw a toolkit near the hatch.”

Mako goes to grab it, and says, “I’m okay with hardware. I’ll have a look, you text Cene. Aria, where’s your phone?”

The text gets sent off. While Cass reads off directions from Aria’s phone, Mako gingerly tends to AuDy. He can’t do much more than fix a few burnt wires and some loose panels, but at least that means all of AuDy will stay in AuDy until they can get them to Cene.

Their screensaver goes away after a bit though, and their monitor lights up again, slightly fainter than usual.

“Medium bad,” is all AuDy says when asked how they’re feeling. They then look firmly at Mako and say, “I had a cover name as well.”

Mako blinks. “Yeah? What?”

“Manual Access Key Override.”

It takes him a second, but then he bursts out laughing.

With AuDy awake, Mako spends some time digging around for a first aid kit and seeing to Aria and Cass. Aria is worse off—he winces when he sees the bruised and bloody knuckles on her hand, and does the best he can with some med gel and bandages. Cass is just exhausted, and so submits to Mako’s attack of adhesive bandages without protest.

“Oh,” says Aria suddenly, “I almost forgot.” She digs around in a trouser pocket and pulls out a small velvet box, tossing it to Mako, who catches it easily.

He opens it. Inside are a pair of diamond earrings, clasped in a thin antique gold.

“How does that work? With the earrings?” Cass asks, looking away briefly from the phone map. They’ve sunk down the floor by the pilot’s seats, back to a wall panel, one leg drawn up. There’s a scattering of sequins all along the floor, a shimmer of silver left in their wake. They’ve finally taken Alkestis Philonikos’s weird mask off. Their expression is tired, but satisfied.

Mako looks up, and looks away again. It’s—he hasn’t seen Cass’s face all night, really. That’s all.

“It’s like, flaws in the crystal,” he says instead. “Natural diamonds have them, and you can store a ton of data in them that way, or something.” Mako holds one of the earrings up, and watches the facets glint in the fluorescent yellow light of the shuttle. Then he puts it away. He settles down next to Cass on the floor, legs stretching out. “Should we get dinner?”

Cass snorts. “It’s like three AM.”

“None of you have eaten properly since this afternoon,” AuDy says. They sound sleepy, which for AuDy means a lower, slower volume.

“There’s a banh mi place five minutes from Cene’s,” says Aria decidedly. “We can get some after AuDy gets their checkup.” She pauses. “And after we ditch this totally stolen vehicle. Oops.”

Mako yawns, leaning back against the wall. He can still make out a few stars through the shuttle’s window. “Okay. Can someone put the radio on?”

And someone does.

**Author's Note:**

> the data stored in diamonds thing is based on a real thing, more or less!


End file.
